AMWU confirms Bathurst's EDI manufacturing plant will close by year's end

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union says the EDI rail manufacturing plant in Bathurst will close at the end of the year.

Engineering, transport and infrastructure company Downer announced last Friday it was considering moving work from the facility to Newcastle and Melbourne.

Union representatives met with management yesterday and say the decision to close has been made.

The union's Tim Ayres says the 100 employees will be offered relocations or redundancies.

"That's a very difficult decision for the people of Bathurst," he said.

We're facing a real jobs crisis in the Central West...the New South Wales Government is really going to need to step up to the plate and make sure that they are part of the solution.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union's, Tim Ayres

"This is a key facility for the economic development of the region, it's provided good jobs to many hundreds of people over the course of the last 40 or so years and it's a real shame that Downer EDI have made this decision."

Mr Ayres says the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union will be working closely with management over the next couple of months.

"To make sure that we exhaust every opportunity to save every job that we can," he said.

"To make sure that people have got good options for relocation or redeployment and to make sure that any worker who's made redundant out of the process gets great training, gets a good redundancy."

There are calls for the state government to do more to stem a "jobs crisis" in the Central West.

Apart from the EDI shutdown, the future of the Simplot food manufacturing plant in Bathurst and the Electrolux plant in Orange remain unknown.

Mr Ayres says the government needs to do more to help.

"We're facing a real jobs crisis in the Central West," he said.

"We've had big pressure on the Simplot plants, big pressure on Electrolux in Orange and this closure of this facility is a real blow.

"So we've got to fight for every job that we can get in the Central West.

"The New South Wales Government is really going to need to step up to the plate and make sure that they are part of the solution."